Resilience, Hope and Good Planning

March 25, 2020

Billions of lives around the planet are fundamentally different than just a few weeks ago. Most people, primarily in urban clusters, are homebound. This is how it should be across the board, leaving home only for essential needs and replenishing food and medicine.

Here in the U.S., there is still denial among some leaders and some people as to the colossal severity of the pandemic. Our federal government would do well to take a lesson from New York State, let alone Italy. Unless there is decisive action now, the economic ramifications of this event will linger far longer. We, the people, must shelter in place for at least the next three weeks and observe physical distancing, according to guidelines by our healthcare leaders. In doing so, we may have come out of this with deep bruises, but we are likely to have dodged a much longer recession post-pandemic event.

I am hopeful that the announced stimulus package is one that balances the need for businesses to maintain steady cash flow and economic viability, and the need for families to make ends meet for the coming 10 to 12 weeks. With appropriate stimulus and pandemic containment measures, I believe we will look back and realize that while this was a very painful event, it was relatively short-lived, and that we were given an opportunity to prepare for the next potential outbreak.

Humans tend to forget calamities quickly. My hope is that this once-in-100-years pandemic will leave in us a palpable imprint, a branding in our collective memory. The world is coming together to fight the "alien invasion." Violent skirmishes between peoples and nations are paused. It is possible that nations, after licking the wounds inflicted by the pandemic, will more robustly and more vigorously band together to fight climate change. Is this asking for too much? It is not!

At energyOrbit, we take part in battling climate change every day we come to work. We also, innately, take part in the battle to thwart the rampant virus spread. All employees at energyOrbit work from our home offices. We have many people that have been doing so with us for years, because from day one, through cloud architecture, energyOrbit was set up to serve some of the largest utilities and other Demand Side Management (DSM) organizations. Fortunately, for us there is really no need for a transition and adaptation period, because we've been doing this for more than 10 years. We are here to support, collaborate with, and offer advice to our customers who have, without exception, all transitioned to working from home offices.

Let's all be resilient, be safe, and be a healthy link in the vast tapestry of people in our communities and around the world.